Plan to renumber Route 6 exit signs hits speed bump

State Rep. Sarah Peake cannot imagine turning off Route 6 in Orleans at Exit 88, which denotes the distance to Seekonk, where the highway first crosses into Massachusetts.

“I don’t care how far it is to Seekonk,” the Provincetown Democrat said. “To folks who have lived on the Cape a long time, what we’ll see is Exit 12. It’s always going to be Exit 12.”

Peake and other members of the Cape legislative delegation, as well as members of the Cape Cod Metropolitan Planning Organization, which helps prioritize road construction projects, received an email Friday from the Cape Cod Commission notifying them of upgrades to Route 6 exit signs proposed by the state Department of Transportation.

The first draft of the proposal included the replacement of the square signs on the roadside with larger signs cantilevered over the highway. It also included changes to the exit numbers, currently exits 2 in Sandwich through 12 in Orleans, to exit numbers 58 through 88, marking the distance from the Rhode Island border to each exit, and thus satisfying a federal highway design standard that exit numbers reflect mileage, not a number sequence.

Read the key details from the proposal for new signs

Exit 9 A-B or Exit 77 A-B under the proposed mileage-based system would be an overhead sign across the entire highway similar to the one that already exists for Exit 1, which is considered the junction with Route 3.

Legislators had asked state transportation officials last year to replace aging signs on Route 6 that had essentially gone dark as reflectors went missing or faded. On Friday, the Cape Cod Commission received the state's design plan as part of a routine administrative change order in which they were to sign off on oversight of the $5.76 million project transferring it from regional to statewide because it had expanded beyond the region to include the section of Route 6 between the Cape and Seekonk. It was the first time that Cape transportation officials had seen the plan, which had been reviewed and approved at the Department of Transportation.

“When we saw it, we said this is more impactful than an administrative change,” said Glen Cannon, the commission’s technical services director. The commission immediately emailed it to legislators and county transportation officials.

Read about other state projects that have ruffled feathers on the Cape

“We allowed the plan to get ahead of the process,” state Highway Administrator Tom Tinlin. “Someone hit the ‘send’ button when they shouldn’t have.”

Tinlin said that highway engineers had good intentions of using the sign replacement project to bring the highway into compliance with federal highway sign standards. But, he said the process should have included a full vetting that would have included the issue of community character.

Even though they hadn’t planned on a referendum this early in the process, they got one, Tinlin said.

“So far the opinions have been loud and clear,” said Tinlin, who also vacations on the Cape and said he would like to see the sign repairs scaled to the landscape and in line with the region’s historic character.

State Rep. Randy Hunt, R-Sandwich, is familiar with the mileage numbering system from growing up in Texas. The last exit on I-10 is 879, marking the total distance traveled from New Mexico to Louisiana, and it was helpful in that outsized landscape, he said. Plus it allowed the creation of new exits when development occurred in a largely undeveloped state, Hunt said.

But the scale is different on the Cape and the land developed to the point that the alternative numbering system is unnecessary, he said.

Tinlin agreed the numbering system doesn’t really apply here. State transportation officials are in conversation with the Federal Highway Administration about numbering exits and that, so far, federal officials haven’t made it an absolute requirement tied to funding, he said.

If they did, he envisions including signs that say, for example, “Exit 88, formerly Exit 12.”

It's still possible state transportation officials could replace the signs with the same type as the existing signs, Tinlin said.

Hunt and Peake say they're worried about the expense to Cape business owners of changing the directions they give to clients, and about confusing locals, senior citizens and summer visitors.

Tinlin again agreed, saying there need to be hearings that include the Cape business community to get input before considering such a change.

State Department of Transportation officials were very responsive to members of the Metropolitan Planning Organization who complained about the sign plan at their meeting on Monday, Cannon said.

“Once they saw the impact, they realized it,” he said.

But even with the state backpedaling, the negative reaction of local politicians was understandable given recent history.

“I think this is the second time with a one-size-fits-all approach,” said Peake, referencing the clear-cutting of a wooded median on Route 6 between exits 2 and 4 in September of 2014 that was done without public hearing to comply with federal design criteria as part of a $6.8 million repaving project.

“They cut every tree for federal dollars, and now, if we want these signs, we get Exit 88 along with it,” Peake said.

Tinlin promised the sign design project would be a very public process.

“(Route 6) doesn’t feel like the Mass Turnpike, Route 93 or 128, and we need to be respectful of that,” he said. “This was not a case of engineers coming up with a drawing and not caring. They were just seeing an opportunity to make (signs) more visible.”